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Spider-Noir: Li Jun Li on How Cat Hardy Became a Dream Role & More

Spider-Noir star Li Jun Li discusses her role as Cat Hardy, using a vocal coach, showrunner Oren Uziel, chemistry with Nicolas Cage, and more.

Spider-Noir fits more as a murder mystery noir that also happens to fit within the superhero world, as its lead character, Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), originally rejects his alter ego of "The Spider" before finding his way back into the mask. Helping to set things in motion is Li Jun Li's Cat Hardy, a lounge singer who recruits Ben to find her love, Flint Marko (Jack Huston), struggling to keep his Sandman powers at bay, who has gone missing. The Sinners (2025) star spoke with Deadline about embracing another period piece, working with a vocal coach to perform "Dream a Little Dream of Me," working with showrunner Oren Uziel, and Cage.

Spider-Noir Star Li Jun Li on Challenges Playing Lounge Singer Cat Hardy

When it came to playing her third period role after Babylon (2022) and Sinners, in the 1950's set Spider-Noir, "I always joke like, 'My gosh, I think I'm the go-to girl for period pieces.' It's not intentional," Li said. "I love it personally because I've always loved period projects. I don't know if it's theater training or if I just think there's an elegance to it. It's romantic, timeless and atmospheric. There's a certain discipline that comes with the requirement from an actor to be in these kinds of projects that I love. So, I think that each project sets up the other, whether it's the research that I do, because I certainly have been pulling from Anna May Wong for 'Spider-Noir.'"

As far as developing what was needed for Cat to perform, "I knew that this role required someone who could sing. As I mentioned before, I started out in musical theater, and I did 'Miss Saigon,' and I toured America, then I was lucky enough to make my Broadway debut at the Lincoln Center in South Pacific about four years after that," Li said. "I believe during my read for the show, I sang acapella, and then a week later I was asked to get on Zoom with the rest of the creative team. I didn't have to sing then for some reason [laughs]. I think everyone understood what I was able to bring to the table. They just gave me a bunch of notes on how they wanted me to perform the scenes that were given for Cat Hardy. Then when we went on set, it was relatively fast-paced because the lyrics or the music weren't quite ready yet. And I remember [being antsy] and thinking like, "Please, I need to work on this as I haven't sung in a long time. I need to work on my vocal cords, and I don't know what we are singing."

Li broke down the training. "But then I went to a music studio. The song was produced by Oak Felder, and I had trained with a vocal coach named Adreana Gonzalez, and it was the most hectic few weeks because I had to get that perfect. I can't let my people down. My musical theater peers would have been very hard on me [laughs]. So, I got to the studio and recorded. Then when we came on the set, it was ready. And you know that scene where Ben Riley sees Cat Hardy for the first time, and I have this shot where it kind of morphs. I'm literally on a little moving cart, and I'm being pushed into the camera, and I'm singing the song twice as fast so that they can slow down the frame. Kind of like a music video, which is hilarious because there's a part of 'Dream a Little Dream' that was written specifically for the show, and it was so fast that when I sang it, I felt like I was crazy."

When asked if Li wants to star in a musical and her dream project, "I never want to boil it down to one dream role. I know a few years ago during an interview, someone asked, 'What do you want to do next?' And I said, 'I want to play a femme fatale.' And that kind of just manifested here for this," she said. "But usually, I don't like to talk about good things because once you talk about it, it doesn't tend to happen to me. So, I avoid it altogether. But I think I've done a pretty good job in keeping my resume colorful. I want to do everything that I possibly can. I want to be versatile in a way that, as an actor, I am not a typecast and I can fall into different tones and be involved in all sorts of different projects, because that's why I'm an actor. I wouldn't want to do the same things over and over again."

As far as how Li connects with Cat, "There are certain roles that I connect with immediately. Instinctively, I understood her on a deeper level. I didn't really have to force my way into trying to figure out who she was," she said. "I understood the theatricality, also the pain that she might carry underneath, and her whole history that we built. It was important to me that we built a real and grounded background for Cat. I spent a good day with Harry Bradbeer, our director, and Oren Uziel, our creator."

When it came to developing Ben and Cat's relationship, "I love their relationship. I think Ben and Cat, when they first meet each other, it was the first time they are meeting their match," Li said. "Whether on an emotional IQ level or a sense of humor, they both have very similar wit, and they're both incredibly sharp. When they talk to each other, they are playing speech chess with each other. I think that's why they're attracted to each other, because they're kind of seeing a version of themselves in each other. When I prepared the role, Oren's iteration was inspired by Rita Hayworth, Ida Lupino, Kim Basinger from 'L.A. Confidential' and Lauren Bacall."

As far as drawing from Spider-Man lore, "We took little bits and pieces of inspiration and put it together. We also drew from the comic book biography of Felicia Hardy and built an entire background about her familiarity with crime because her father was a world-renowned cat burglar, but then we also wanted to bring it down or ground it and say, 'No, no, no. I think he was a petty thief. He was imprisoned,'" Li said. "She had to make a life for herself where she then performed, and that was her survival instinct to be dependent on her ability to perform, charm, and seduce. She's very familiar with how she can navigate through those things because she meets Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson)."

Li recalled how she clicked with Cage, "Working with Nic, it was a whole different layer of surprise when we sat down at the table reading. When we started to hear all the words come off the page, then I thought I was just going to go in like a cool cat, no pun intended; then Nic was so dialed-in and laser focused on his portrayal of the character," she said. "It forced me to instantly click into the moment. I think that's when we just started. That was the birth of Ben and Cat's banter. So, every time they're together, they're just constantly playing this quick little verbal ping-pong game."

For more, including Li's upbringing and Cat's costumes, you can check out the entire interview. Spider-Noir, which also stars Lamorne Morris, Karen Rodriguez, and Abraham Popoola, is available on Prime Video in black and white and true-hue color.

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